Good news for landowners looking to make extra income: your land is already storing carbon and you can sell those carbon credits for cash!
When you sell carbon offsets from your agricultural land, you can agree to additional activities that will allow your property to store more carbon to earn more carbon credits. One such activity is regenerative agriculture.
What is Regenerative Agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming intended to restore the organic carbon of degraded soils to reduce climate impact. More specifically, regenerative agricultural practices aim to:
Contribute to soil generation, fertility and health
Increase water percolation and retention, as well as clean and safe water runoff
Increase biodiversity and ecosystem health and resiliency
Remove CO2 from the atmosphere by increasing soil carbon sequestration.
Overall, the idea behind carbon credits from regenerative agriculture is that entities responsible for emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere have to reduce their emissions, or pay for the efforts of farmers who are doing the work of reducing carbon from the air. This payment comes in the form of one carbon credit, which represents one metric ton of carbon removed from the atmosphere. The last point is key if you are a landowner interested in earning extra money off your land. By using regenerative agriculture to increase carbon sequestration on your land, the soils on your land will store more carbon. Different soil types sequester different amounts of carbon, but the ultimate goal of regenerative agriculture practices is the same.
This will make your land more valuable, as you can sell the carbon credits on the United States' voluntary carbon market. You can find your land’s current carbon offset value (and see how that value can be increased with practices like regenerative farming) using LandGate’s Carbon LandEstimate™ in our free Property Report.
The Benefits of Regenerative Agriculture
How can you practice regenerative agriculture on your land? Here are some of the methods landowners use:
No-till farming where seeds are drilled into the soil in lieu of plowing
Growing cover crops over soil following the main crop harvest
Rotating three or more crops over several years (known as “diverse crop rotation”)
Rotating between crops and grazing livestock
No-till farming and the use of cover crops can reduce soil erosion and encourage water filtration. Diversification of crop rotation can lower the need for pesticides, while the addition of grazing livestock can increase vegetation and protect water sources. Each of these practices can improve the soil health on farmland, allowing it to sequester higher amounts of carbon. Farmers can play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through these practices.
You can simultaneously boost your farm business' economic and ecological strength by generating a new revenue stream through restoring the health of the soils on your land. These are just a few of the many benefits to regenerative farming practices – but the biggest benefit of all is the money you can pocket each month thanks to small changes in the way you farm your land!
Selling Carbon Credits on LandGate
Energy investors want to buy the carbon credits generated from your land – and LandGate makes the entire process fast and easy. We've calculated the carbon credits of every parcel in the U.S., factoring in planned regenerative agriculture practices on each one. You can view this information for FREE – along with verified details on thousands of potential buyers – when you get your free Property Report and list your carbon credits on LandGate's Marketplace.
